Don't Go
by TMJones
Summary: AU. Being friends with Roxas has been one hell of a ride. Now that Roxas is leaving for good, Axel has only one more day to say everything that he's never had the courage to. AkuRoku. Based on Making April's "Don't go."


Summary: AU. Being friends with Roxas has been one hell of a ride. Now that Roxas is leaving for good, Axel has only one more day to say everything that he's never had the courage to. AkuRoku. Based on Making April's "Don't go."

A/N: This idea came to me a while ago while I was listening to the awesomeness that is Making April, and I wrote down a lot of it and then dropped it. So now I've come back and finished (yay!). Lyrics are not in the text, although they're easy enough to find on the internet if you wish to look.

Title: Don't go.

* * *

"Hey, Axel."

Axel just about crashed his car, he was so shocked. He would know that voice anywhere, and yet it was the last person he'd expected to be calling him.

"Um—Hi," he blurted out, as he swerved just in time to narrowly avoid someone's mailbox. "Shit—!"

"Axel?"

Axel felt another jolt go through him, but he was ready for it this time; his hand was gripping the steering wheel too tightly, his knuckles pulling too much on his skin as he said,

"Yeah, I'm here. This is Roxas, right?"

"Yeah," Roxas laughed, "Who else would be calling from my cell? And what happened?"  
Axel pulled his phone back and glanced at the screen. Sure enough, the words 'Rockin' Roxas' were scrolling by. He forgot if it was him or Roxas that had first decided to put that there.

"Some idiot's on the road," he said, putting the phone in between his ear and shoulder so he could grip the steering wheel with both hands.

"You're driving while talking?"

"What? It's not like anyone's out here yet, it's too goddamn early. And why are you calling me at eight anyway? Asshole."

Roxas laughed.  
"Sorry, It's just...I'm kind of excited."

"What about?" Axel asked, making a turn onto the main road outside his neighborhood, "It's not like I've been hearing from you on a regular basis, so I'm kinda lost."

An awkward silence followed his comment, making Axel frown. He couldn't think of anything to say, though, and the pause was so fleeting that he barely had time to process it before Roxas said,

"You know how I've been applying for jobs, right?"

"Yeah," Axel said, "That whole graduating thing." Roxas was graduating from college next week with an engineering degree, and he had been looking for jobs around the area for the past three months, since Axel had spoken to him.

"Well...I got one."

"That's good," Axel said.

Another silence. This time, it made Axel laugh.

"You know, if you wanted me to scream or something, you should have called about five hours later—"

"It's in Japan."

Axel's breath left him.

Japan.

His first thought was that flag, with the red spot in the middle. Then came world wars, sushi, anime freaks, action movies...

"You there?"

Axel blinked. Somehow the road ahead of him seemed different now. As though nothing was familiar, even though he'd driven this way to work for the past three years.

"Yeah," he said, "um...wow, Roxas. That's amazing."

"I'd be 14 hours ahead of here," he said, "isn't that crazy?"

Why did neither of them sound as excited as they should? Axel dismissed the thought; maybe it was just him.

"Dude. You'd be a day ahead of me half the time."

"Yeah," he said, "talk about jet lag...Anyway, I'm flying out a couple days after graduation, so I'm only going to be back home for a day. They want me to start in the fall and there's a bunch of training they want me to get through first."

One day.

After not seeing his closest friend for three months, Axel got one day.

Figured.

"Well," he said, "We're just going to have to make the most of it. You and me."

"So you're going to be in town?"

"Hell yeah," Axel said, smiling. In an awkward way, he was excited about this whole thing. Excited and pissed at the same time, although he wasn't sure why.

"Great," Roxas said, and Axel could tell he was relieved. "I'm looking forward to it."

"You're all right with a low budget welcome, right?" Axel asked, "'cause I'm a crazy bastard and taking summer classes. Fees are due soon."

"I just wanted to hang out one more time," Roxas said.

Axel felt his stomach clench at that last phrase, 'one more time'. What did that mean, exactly?

"Awesome. I'll see you at graduation, all right?"

"All right," Roxas said. He definitely sounded happier now. "See you then."

"Yeah, bye."

Axel dropped his phone in the passenger seat before merging onto the freeway, his mind still reeling. It had been such a normal conversation, and yet...monumental. He felt like it was the beginning of the end of another chapter in his life. Something that would have made a great blog entry, if he had still liked writing shit about himself. He'd given that up a while ago, though, just because it all started sounding the same after a while.

If he were in a movie, this would be the part where the guy on his guitar would start playing.

* * *

Graduation was amazing. Not because of the ceremony (it was boring and stuffy), but because of the fact that afterwards, Roxas was sitting next to Axel on the way back home in the back seat of Roxas' parent's car. Axel felt like he was 16 again, laughing at stupid jokes and making funny faces and annoying Roxas' dad with his antics. He didn't yell at them this time, though; he just laughed along instead, because he knew that Axel wasn't as stupid anymore. Axel could be himself in that car, and no one would take something the wrong way.

It was a liberating feeling.

* * *

Roxas stayed over at Axel's house that night—meaning that he put a change of clothes and his toothbrush into a bag, opened the gate in his backyard and sat down next to the the fire Axel was building on the other side.

"What's spring without marshmallow crispies?" Axel asked, grinning.

They had given the name to the marshmallows that were so burnt that they were crunchy on the outside, just intact enough to still taste somewhat sweet.

"I forgot how nasty these tasted," Roxas laughed, after gagging his first one down.

"I know, right?"

* * *

The sky was clear that night. They knew, because they dragged their sleeping bags out of Axel's bedroom window and onto the flat roof, much to his mother's disliking. They swore up and down that they didn't roll in their sleep, and that they probably wouldn't be sleeping anyway.

"I can't find Gemini," Roxas said, once they'd gotten comfortable.

"You're asking the wrong person. All I know is that there's a bunch of shit in space that's burning and making it glitter."

Roxas laughed.

"That's the best description of the galaxy I've ever heard."

"You know it."

* * *

When they woke up the next morning, the first thing Roxas said was,

"That was my last full night's sleep here."

"Really?" Axel asked; he was still groggy enough to be wondering what he was doing on his roof in the first place, but it was slowly coming back to him. Coffee would help...

"Yeah," Roxas said. He sounded like he'd been up for the past couple hours, contemplating life and stuff. "I leave for my flight at four am tomorrow."

Axel rolled over towards Roxas' voice.

"That sucks."

Roxas smiled down at him; he was already up, sitting cross-legged on his sleeping bag. He laughed.

"You look like you're high."

Axel pulled the flap of his sleeping bag over his head.

"You're just jealous."

"What, that I don't look like shit?"

"...Something like that."

* * *

They ended up getting lured off the roof by Axel's mom waving a piece of toast through Axel's bedroom window at them.

"I'm making breakfast!" she said, "Get some before I decide to feed the worms with it!"

"You would _not_ put an omlette in the compost bin!" Axel exclaimed. He had pushed himself into a sitting position at this point (kind of), and was even coherent enough to remember why Roxas was in town in the first place.

"Don't make me think about it!" Mom returned, "and don't rush down here, I don't want you falling off the roof for some eggs!"

"We won't!" Roxas said, as she went back inside. "So your mom's still a vegetarian hippie?"

Axel laughed.

"Are you kidding? She's eating veggies and burning incense until she croaks." He grinned. "Just like me," he added.

Roxas rolled his eyes.

"Well _I _still like chicken," he said.

"And the chicken doesn't like you," Axel returned.

* * *

After sucking down enough coffee to turn his blood black, Axel was awake enough to think properly again. And not look like shit.

"Where do you want to go first?" Axel asked, as he pulled his keys off of their hook in the front hallway. Roxas was looking contemplative again.

"How about the beach?" Roxas asked.

"Beach it is!" Axel exclaimed.

Half an hour later, they were running around barefoot on the same beach they had hung out on countless times before while growing up. Axel said it was the first place they met, but Roxas said there was a time he had seen Axel before that, back in fifth grade. Not that it mattered— it was just something to go back and forth on, which they had done countless times before on long summer days when it was too hot to do anything else.

Today, though, they laughed about things.

"Remember when we tried to canoe out to the middle of the lake?" Axel asked with a laugh.

Roxas smiled, at that.

"And then you panicked because you realized you didn't know how to swim?" he said, "Even though you had a life jacket on and you couldn't drown if you tried?"

"That was awesome."  
"The awesome part was when you fell out of the canoe without tipping it over."

"I don't remember that part—"  
"I do," Roxas interrupted, laughing, "I had to haul you back in!"

"Like I said, I don't recall this."

"You don't remember anything that's embarrassing."  
"Exactly! It didn't happen if I don't remember it."

Roxas just laughed.

* * *

When the sun started to get too hot for them, it was time to leave. And since it was around lunchtime anyway, they decided to visit the diner they always went to when they skipped class in high school. As was their unspoken code, Roxas ordered a really big burger and made comments about how real men ate meat, and Axel condemned him to a short life and health problems in his old age.

"If I live longer than you, I'm gonna laugh," he said.  
"I can totally see that," Roxas replied.

The strange look they got from the waitress that had happened to walk by while they were talking sent them into such a laughing fit that their stomachs hurt for a good 20 minutes afterward.

By the time they were done with lunch, there was a part of Axel that was feeling desperate. He felt like he couldn't get these final moments with Roxas to last long enough, like they were slipping by before he could fully enjoy them. And all the while there was a secret of Axel's that was nagging, threatening to come to the surface. Every part of Roxas— past, present, and future— was coming forth in Axel's mind, making every minute seem rich and colorful.

He tried not to think about it too much, though; he could mope later.

* * *

Before Axel was ready, the day ended in a beautiful sunset filled with orange, pink, and yellow, saturating the entire town in a warm dreamlike glow. Too soon, they were standing right where the fences to their backyard converged. Behind them was the road that split where their houses met. Roxas was standing on his side, and Axel was standing on his own. Under their feet was the cracked sidewalk that had seen better days; the concrete was so fragmented that there wasn't a single intact square anymore. On one of their more uneventful days of summer, Axel remembered that they had tried to find familiar shapes on the sidewalk while trying not to step on the cracks.

Right now the toes of his shoes were right on the north end of Tennessee, parallel to the border. He noticed Roxas was standing on the one they'd dubbed as Colorado a while ago. Inside, Axel was bursting to say the million things he had never said before— like how much he had missed Roxas when he'd gone, or how much he was going to miss Roxas again, or how he had never...

He swallowed, and spit out what he was supposed to say instead.

"Well, um...I guess this is it."

"Yeah," Roxas said, keeping his eyes fixed on his shoes, "I'll call you."

"Yeah," Axel agreed, "and I won't call you back."

"What?"

"Long distance?" Axel clarified, "my phone service would come knocking on my door and demand my firstborn child."

That earned a laugh.

"I'll email, then," he said, "Since you're probably never going to have a firstborn child."

"Nope."

The awkward silence that followed was just wrong. They were supposed to be cracking more jokes and making fun of each other, or laughing. Hugging.

But none of those things were happening. Axel wondered why...

"Good luck with everything," Roxas said, "And, um...I'll try and visit when I can."

"Yeah, good luck to you too," Axel said, forcing a smile on his face.

Roxas smiled back, and waved. Then he turned and started to walk away. And as Roxas made his way down the street and back to his parents' home, Axel realized something.

He didn't want Roxas to go. At all. Having him here made him realize tenfold just how much he missed his company, and for one glorious day Axel had felt better than normal— like everything was right again. He hadn't felt like that since...

Since Roxas left.

Axel felt woozy at the thought; he didn't think that he'd been so attached to the guy, and maybe he was just overreacting, but the fact remained that he was making too many connections while standing there, thinking about all that their friendship had taken them through. He put a hand to his forehead, hardly believing what he was thinking. It wasn't like Roxas was his air, or anything (god, that sounded sappy). So why did he feel like running to Roxas' house and begging him to stay?

Axel gave his head a shake and walked back to his own house. He got into his car, with the thought that he needed to go pick up some things at the store before Mom got home that night. Instead of putting his keys in the ignition, though, Axel let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

He made it through goodbye, somehow.

It was officially over. Roxas was gone, as of four in the morning tomorrow. Which left Axel staring at the worn ceiling of his car, feeling vastly empty.

He sighed again.

Axel had one of two options, now: he could either sit here and play a million happy-ending scenarios in his head until Roxas' plane left...

or he could do what he really, truly wanted to do.

"What the hell, right?" he said aloud, "He's going to fucking japan, for God's sake."

He had one more chance. One more chance to keep himself sane, and know for sure just how Roxas felt. He could make this better than it was. He could wake up tomorrow with a clean slate, a new life, and a clear conscience.

Axel watched himself dial Roxas' house number from memory. It seemed to take eons for the phone to reach his ear, and even longer for the phone to start ringing. And keep ringing.  
"Come _on_," Axel groaned, "you're not making this any easier—"

"Hello," said Roxas' message recording, "you have reached the voice mailbox of phone number seven-seven-zero..."

Axel waited for the stupid automated woman's voice to finish— although as much as he wanted her to stop, he wasn't quite ready for the dial tone. There was a strange pause, as Axel comprehended the fact that the phone was recording him now.

"Hey Roxas...I, um...I just— wanted to apologize for being so awkward back there."

He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He could do this.

"I guess..."

His hand clenched on the steering wheel, as he called forth all the willpower he ever possessed to force out his next words:

"What I really wanted to say was...I never— really got over you. You know, from when we said we liked each other, before college? I know it's been four years already, you'd think I'd have gotten over it...Anyway, I just wanted to say that now, since I...never said it before. Being with you today kinda made me remember I was trying to forget all that. We never dated, or anything, but...I guess I just got stuck there. Freaky, right?"

He sighed. The adrenaline was rushing through him now, making his stomach churn and his fingers feel cold.

"You'll do fine— in Japan. You're smart, you'll pick up the language in no time. And hey, you're just about as short as they are, right?"

He laughed a small laugh that wasn't his own.

"So yeah. Good luck on everything. And call me sometime. You know, when you're settled and all. Bye."

He jabbed the 'end' button with his thumb, and let his arm drop to his side

There. He'd done it. There was no turning back.

Everything seemed dimmer outside his car now. He knew that any other time, the sunset would have been absolutely gorgeous to him. The temperature would have been perfect, and he would have camped out on his roof until the goosebumps had started to pinch his skin, free from the mosquitoes and gnats because the spring air would be just a smidgen too cold for them at night, still...

Feeling extremely unmotivated to go anywhere now, Axel dragged himself out of his car again and into his empty house. He kinda wanted his mom to have gotten back from work early; he needed someone to talk to now. Something to make things normal again. He settled for turning on the TV, and opening the porch's sliding glass doors to let the warm air inside. He sang to himself as he made a veggie sandwich, and flopped on the couch to find himself watching a football game.

"Go team!" he exclaimed unenthusiastically, pumping his fist in the air. Some lettuce fell out from the bread, taking a blob of mayo with it.

Axel just stared at it for a moment as he watched it stain his mother's couch. Somehow, it just represented how wrong things were.

He sighed, and turned off the TV. This wasn't working.

"Ten second rule," he said aloud, before picking up the lettuce and eating it. If there was anything Axel liked better than burned food, it was his veggies.

Not that it helped him now. Especially since the lettuce tasted kinda like fuzz at one end.

Stupid mayo.

Stupid couch.

"...Stupid _me,_" he finished. He shook his head at the blank TV screen. Now he just sounded melodramatic.

He sighed again, and went back to the kitchen to get himself a plate. This was going to be a long evening—

_knock knock knock._

Axel paused, gripping his sandwich so tightly that he left fingermarks in the bread. He shouldn't get excited; it was probably just some solicitor, or something. Maybe Mrs. Keane had lost her dog again. She needed a chain for that thing, she really did...

_Knock knock knock._

Probably Mrs. Keane, Axel rationalized, as he walked over to open it. Hopefully it was Mrs. Keane. God, if it was Roxas, he didn't know what he was going to do—

Axel yanked the door open.

Sure enough it was Roxas, looking agitated and awkward. He looked down the second he saw Axel standing there, deciding to stare at his shoes instead.

Well.

This was interesting.

A good minute passed as they stood there, being awkward at each other. Axel was bursting to say something, but he didn't know what, because he'd just completely blown their friendship up by leaving that stupid message that he was really regretting now that Roxas was obviously going to confront him about—

_plop._

Both of their attention snapped to the second leaf of lettuce as it bounced on the floor in between them, smearing some more mayo on the carpet.

"...Is that a lettuce sandwich?" Roxas asked, glancing Axel's dinner.

"It _did_ have lettuce," Axel said, eying the leaf that had fallen between them, "Now it's just got...sprouts and stuff."

Roxas let out a small laugh.

"You always know the right thing to say, Axel," he said.

Axel feigned an air of confidence he didn't have, and grinned.

"Why thank you."

Roxas laughed again, and shuffled his feet a little.

"Anyway..." he said.

"This is about that message, isn't it?" Axel asked, dropping the goofy face and cutting to the chase.

Roxas nodded, finally looking Axel in the eye for the first time since Axel had opened the door.

"Yeah," he said quietly.

Axel smiled. As nervous as he was, he found that it was still just as easy to be honest with Roxas. He wouldn't want it any other way, really.

"Sorry for throwing that at you," he said, "I'm...kinda feeling stupid for not saying anything earlier—"

"It's been four years," Roxas said. He sounded incredulous— amazed, even.

Unless Axel was just hearing that out of hope. He shrugged.

"Yeah, well...obviously trying to just forget about it wasn't working, so...yeah," he finished.

Roxas shook his head.

"I...really don't know what to say."

"Well, you didn't _have_ to come over here if you were just going to tell me that," Axel said, "I mean, seriously. I'm trying to get my foot out of my mouth and eat a sandwich."

Roxas smiled.

"Sorry," he said, "I just...I don't know."  
Axel bent down and picked up the lettuce.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to use the ten-second rule," he said, grinning another confident grin. Roxas laughed nervously.

"I was hoping you wouldn't."  
"Are you going to come in?" he asked. "Or should I close the door on you?"

Silently, Roxas stepped inside. Axel pushed the door shut, and headed to the kitchen. He finally put his mutilated sandwich down on a plate and threw the lettuce in the sink (he'd put it in the compost bin later). After thinking about it for a moment, though, he just put the sandwich on the counter. He felt like a girl, losing his appetite over nervousness, but he shrugged the feeling off and went to the entryway again, where Roxas was still standing.

"Do I need to carry you to the couch, or what?" he asked flatly.

Roxas just looked at his shoes again, and took a deep breath.

"Just so you know," he said, his voice sounding strange, "...I always wondered about us, too."

Axel blinked. Did he just really hear what he thought he'd heard?

"...Seriously?"

"Yeah," Roxas said, suddenly looking shy, "I just...never said anything, 'cause...well, there was Zexion, and then that Riku guy...and then it just seemed like something that just never happened."

Axel just stared at his friend, dumbfounded.

"So...we've been not telling the other the same thing all this time?"

Roxas nodded.

"And now I'm on a flight to Japan tomorrow."

"...wow," Axel said, "We suck."

Roxas looked up at Axel.

"I don't know about that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Roxas shrugged.

"Well, I could take that other job here, and skip Japan altogether."

Axel's eyes bugged.

"_Hell _no!" he exclaimed, looking at his friend like he was completely crazy, "It's fucking Japan! Get your ass out of my house and pack, or get sleep or something. Screw that, pack _me_ with you! If anything, I should be going over there after you—"

"Into a completely different culture and language that I don't even know, where I'd have no friends and everything I'm familiar with would be half a world a way, literally?"

Axel saw worry in Roxas' eyes, as he spoke; it was obvious that this had been weighing on his mind for a long time.

"Then why did you book the damn flight if you weren't sure!" Axel exclaimed. Roxas heaved a heavy sigh.

"I just...I thought I could do it, but the closer I get to actually going..."

"The more you feel like you want to stay?" Axel finished.

"...Yeah," Roxas said.

Axel looked at his watch.

"Well, Einstein, you've got less than 12 hours to get your shit together."

Roxas smiled a little, at that.

"Yeah," he said.

After another awkward silence, Axel shook his head.

"Look," he said, running a hand through his crazy hair, "Why don't we just forget I said anything?"

Slowly Roxas nodded. Then, he looked Axel square in the eye with more confidence than Axel had seen in him all day.

"Fine," he said, "but only on one condition."

"What's that?" Axel asked.

"Stay still."

Axel frowned, as Roxas stepped closer.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean—?"

He stopped breathing, as Roxas came close enough to invade Axel's personal bubble. Oh, god...

Before Axel could think another fragment of a thought, Roxas had swiftly pressed his lips firmly on Axel's own. Axel stood there, frozen from shock, barely believing that this was real. Had Roxas actually come over, or did he just imagine all that? Was he dreaming now? He must have fallen asleep in front of the TV, or something...

Roxas stepped closer, closing the space still left between him and Axel, causing Axel's tense muscles to relax into putty. He put his arms around Roxas' waist— just because it was something he'd always wanted to do, and hell, it was now or never.

He ended up squeezing Roxas even closer, as though he would slip through his fingers if he let go. Roxas relaxed into him and breathed deeply. Axel savored the sensation of their kiss, telling himself to commit the feeling of every last millisecond to memory. He was already convinced that this was the best kiss he'd ever get in his life...

And it just _had _to be from his best friend that was leaving in less than a day, too.

Finally, Roxas pulled away again— in a very slow, reluctant way.

"That's just mean," Axel said softly, without opening his eyes. Roxas laughed, and Axel savored the sensation of his breath brushing across Axel's face, too.

"I know, right?"

"I hope that's not why you did it."

"No," Roxas murmured. He pulled his head back just enough so that Axel could see him properly again, when Axel finally opened his eyes. Roxas really did look torn about this whole thing. Axel cursed himself for even bringing it up; now Roxas was contemplating staying in this dump...

"You wouldn't like it here," he said.

"I've lived here once," Roxas said, "I didn't hate it here— "

"But you didn't love it, either," Axel pointed out. "You always wanted to see new places. Now you've got the chance of a lifetime. Don't be an ass and waste it on something that might not even work."

Roxas looked down at his shoes again.

"Yeah," he said softly. He looked up again. "You've...thought about this a lot, haven't you?"

"Yeah," Axel said, smiling, "Unfortunately."

When Roxas gave him that surprised look again, Axel just ruffled Roxas' hair. That had been something he'd always wanted to do, too— just 'cause it seemed fun. Which it was.

"You've got a lot going for you," he said, "You'll be fine."

Roxas just gave his head a shake.

"Yeah," he said, frowning a little as though concentrating on what he was saying, "I'm just nervous, I guess..."

"And I'm just stupid," Axel said with a laugh, "I shouldn't have said anything..."  
"No, it's good that you did," Roxas insisted.

Axel didn't believe that. He pulled his arms back from Roxas' waist reluctantly, and let them fall to his sides.

"You should get home," he said.

Roxas nodded.

"That would be a good idea."

He didn't move, though.

"'would be'?" Axel repeated.

"I...don't want to leave."

Axel shrugged.

"You're welcome to hang out until late," he said, "I can't promise I'll be entertaining the entire time, though."

Roxas frowned at the floor again; that's not what he had meant, and Axel knew it. Axel refused to listen, though— the last thing he wanted on his conscious was Roxas' missed opportunity. He knew that if he was selfish and told Roxas to stay and he followed through on it, Roxas would regret not going. Maybe not tomorrow, or the next week, but it would resurface sooner or later. Roxas had always dreamed big; that was one of the things Axel had always admired about him. Axel always stirred things up, but Roxas actually made things _happen_. He changed people.

He had changed Axel more than even Axel could know.

"Go sleep," Axel insisted, "you're going to need it."

"Yeah," he said distantly. He turned towards the door, and opened it. Axel followed, feeling uncomfortably hollow inside.

"By the way," Roxas said, after he had descended Axel's front steps, "just because I'm short doesn't mean I'm going to fit in."

"Oh! You remembered that." Axel said, smiling. He laughed. "You'll fit in more than I would, at least."

Roxas smiled at that.

"I guess," he said. He already sounded better, Axel decided.

"Call me when you have a number," Axel said, "or email me, or something."

"I will," Roxas said, "Once I get things in order."

"Good."

Roxas then turned, and made his way to the sidewalk. When he'd closed the gate to the white pickett fence that surrounded Axel's property, he waved.

"Talk to you soon!" he said.

Axel gave Roxas his signature two-finger salute that he used to use all the time in high school, right as the screen door fell shut again with a click. When Roxas was out of sight Axel shut the front door again, listening to how the 'click' of the lock echoed throughout the house. He never recalled noticing that before.

* * *

Axel was on his rooftop that night, equipped with nothing more than a blanket and his cellphone as he counted down the minutes until Roxas' flight left. A part of him felt like being epic and thinking of all the memories he could think of that involved Roxas from the time they met until today, but he figured it would just depress him.

So he just stared at the stars until his eyesight blurred from tiredness, letting his thoughts run free. He thought about their day, and the kiss he'd never thought he'd get, and a million other things that had nothing to do with anything. Maybe he'd be able to move on, now that he'd confronted what he'd never said. One could hope, anyway. Axel decided to take the optimistic side of things.

When the digital numbers changed from 3:59 to 4:00, he whispered,

"Good luck."

Then he got up and crawled back inside his window, feeling very glad that he didn't have a morning shift at work tomorrow...

* * *

A/N: I don't know why Axel's vegetarian. It was rather spontaneous. I don't know who he's wishing 'good luck' to, either; it could be him or Roxas. Or both.

Until next time,

-Trempush


End file.
